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Yesss! This analysis of the themes of media / television / fiction that Doctor Who has focused on in recent series and which have been a preoccupation of Russell T Davies across his career is really well made. Really worth watching regardless of whether you're a 'the Doctor is a TV character theory' truther.
I'm seeing more people appreciate the Doctor's dark moment in the last episode than people criticising it as OOC, but I fall into the latter camp. I thought it crossed a line. I suppose it's not dissimilar to Nine shocking the Dalek, but even in that situation his fear of the Dalek played into it and he stopped himself. He'd already beaten Kid, he wasn't a threat anymore. And yet he kept tasering him over and over for so long! It was awful to watch.
I'm waiting to see how the character's arc plays out in the finale, but it definitely was not one of those 'dark Doctor' moments that make me like the character more. I don't think there was anything intriguing about it, it was just ugly.
Doctor Who 2x07 Wish World spoilers
I'm so unused to homophobia being depicted in Doctor Who that the bit with the guy berating the Doctor for calling him beautiful made my throat tight, it was so upsetting. It was such a relief to see Rogue again in the wake of that.
I loved seeing Poppy again as well, she's so cute, such a scene stealer.
This whole season has been so good!
Interesting parallel scenes between Carla Sunday in The Church on Ruby Road and Paul McCartney and John Lennon in The Devil's Chord: we see what they're like when the thing they love most has been taken from them, leaving them an aimless, unkind, shell of themselves, sad without knowing why. It was really affecting with Carla, and struck a chord (heh) as well with the Beatles, and primed the emotion of the rooftop concert scene well.
Obi-Wan Kenobi review (spoilers in comments and reblogs)
I've been really excited about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, because the tragedy of that character, especially at this moment in his life, is something I find really moving. But I was still taken aback by how the first two episodes basically punched me in every Star Wars feeling I've ever had? I know for a lot of people Rogue One gave them a greater appreciation for A New Hope, and I feel this show does the same for every era of the saga.
your point about hunger games interests me because as a writer one of the limitations I've always found using present tense myself is that it gets awkward in certain scenarios, like the one you described -- like a recent past recap? so i try to only use present for single-scene, short fics, and past for longer stuff. but i've tried to express that to other people before and they're usually like "what are you talking about" lmaoo... there's probably a specific grammar term lmao i don't know english grammar words i just work here)
*Puts on grammarian hat* Yeah, past tenses give a lot of room when it comes to sequencing events, which is particularly important for story-telling. They're actually called narrative tenses.
There's a lot more restriction with what we can do with the present. The typical use case for these tenses is to describe things that often happen or are happening right now, with only the present perfect to describe things that happened before now, but at an unspecified time.
So when it comes to talking about something that happened or was happening during a specified time in the past (such as the time during which Katniss was unsconscious), narrative tenses are needed, and work against the feverish in-the-moment style that I think was achieved well using the present tense in the first Hunger Games book. Which goes with what I said that I think it works well with fics that are close to a movie script in spirit.
I also said that I think it goes well with fics that are almost like poetry, all multitudes of feelings and sensations concentrated in one moment in time. So that's why I, too, feel it often works well with short scenes.
Life is Strange: True Colors quick review
SPOILERS!
@oodlyenough I read your review when I finished! While it doesn't surprise me that they warned people up front about the death, I had no idea and was devastated when it happened. I even googled to make sure that was an unalterable part of the story and that I hadn't somehow caused it. I also chose to romance Steph, the scenes of the two of them jamming together were so cute. I was tempted to go for Ryan at first just because his voice is so attractive, but I ended up liking Steph more as I played. My ending was pretty different from yours! Because I chose not to take Charlotte's anger, but I did take Pike's fear, they were the ones that backed me up. I unfortunately missed the interaction with Duckie in episode 4, which I think would have lead to both him and Ryan supporting Alex, pity. I would have liked to be able to forgive Ryan, but I did not find any opportunity to do so. I chose to leave Haven with Steph, despite how beautiful the flashforward was, because I felt Alex deserved to see the world and have adventures after basically being imprisoned in institutions all her life. But the ending scene for that choice was a bit underwhelming. What I really did not like was how before the bus scene they showed Ryan standing on that cliff again D: No, dude, not that. Is there no chance to talk with him? I really liked the power to see things from other people's point of view and uncover their hidden thoughts, very Psychonauts :D Must have tickled you to play the two games one after the other.
What about you, @pulledacross, what were your choices like?
Psychonauts 2 review (non-spoilery)
I finished it! It was a wonderful game, definitely worth waiting for. The creators really took advantage of the medium of video games to tell a story about exploring the mental worlds of others so you develop an empathetic understanding of the issues they're dealing with, while having an incredible amount of fun in richly-imaginative and detailed environments.
Between the cleverness of the design, the physics-defying spaces and transitions between them (so many TARDIS moments, some so subtle you don't even notice them), and how all the elements of each level tie into its themes, I would say it's the best-looking game ever made. This sort of wondrous design is what gets lost when the industry obsesses with photorealism.
I would say there's less wackiness and belly-laughs compared to the first game, while still being funnier and more mind-bending than most things. They clearly opted for a more subtle approach to characterisation and the exploration of psychological issues, which gives you a lot more to marvel at and think about moment to moment, while having a bit less of that 'LMFAO I can't believe this is happening' that the first game did so well. That said, all the side characters in the real world were so good, interesting and fun I definitely felt I would have liked to spend more time getting to know them, but the game's plot keeps you away from them, as you spend most of your time uncovering it through the mental worlds.
One of the worlds you explore belongs to a character played by Jack Black, and he's of course delightful. I knew his level would be fun from the trailers, but the joyous and touching finale got me verklempt as well.
I think the best way to enjoy the game is to go in completely blind, so you can only guess at what you will find when you enter a character's mind, it's guaranteed to always suprise you that way. You don't even need to have played the first game, since there's a cute opening animation that catches you up on previous events. But as someone who played and adored the first game years ago, it was great to see Psy2 pick up its loose threads and provide answers and closure to the things I wanted it to.
Raz is a fantastic protagonist. Invader Zim's Richard Horvitz infuses him with a great mix of sincerity, empathy, snark and silliness. His facial animations are great too, so much that his reactions are sometimes enough for a laugh-out-loud punchline, or for a heart-breaking revelation to hit home.
The platforming and combat is much improved from the first game, and really fun moment-to-moment. Not to mention all the options they give you to make it easier, if you want them. I normally use assist options in combat games, but I found I didn't have to in this one, since I was already doing a lot of extra exploration that helped me level up and upgrade my abilities quickly.
I like how you make good use of all of your psychic powers not just for combat, but also to solve environmental puzzles to facilitate platforming, and for fun gags. For example, I made it a habit to use Clairvoyance on everyone, and the results were often funny, and interesting to see how several characters' perception of Raz changed throughout. I would definitely recommend thoroughly exploring the post-game for extra bits like this.
All in all, a well-written, creative, unique and fun game. You'll be left wondering why doesn't the rest of the industry attempt to do things like this more often.
You can play it on PC, consoles or cloud. On PC: via Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle or Xbox for PC, and it's available on Xbox Game Pass, which means you can sign up for a month or three of Game Pass Ultimate for one buck with their current promotion, and play it on PC via Xbox for PC, or XCloud (PC or mobile) if you don't have a gaming computer. So basically, you can play this game even if you have no money and no gaming equipment. It is also available on actual Xbox consoles, the PS4, and PS5 via backwards compatibility.
